Their seat was Highgarden, where many Gardener kings sat upon a living throne called the Oakenseat that grew from an oak that the mythical Garth Greenhand himself was reputedly said to have planted. The Kings of House Gardener wore crowns of vines and flowers when at peace, and crowns of bronze thorns (later iron) when they rode to war.[2] Their blazon was a green hand over a white field,[3][4] which inspired the chivalric Order of the Green Hand.[5]

Contents

History

Age of Heroes

The Gardeners claimed descent from the mythical Garth Greenhand, who, according to legends from the Reach, is said to have been the High King of the First Men and common ancestor of numerous noble houses from the Reach.[6] His firstborn child was Garth the Gardener, the legendary first King of the Reach who reigned in the Age of Heroes.[6] According to legend, Garth the Gardener made his home on the hill atop the Mander river that in time would become known as Highgarden, and wore a crown of vines and flowers. From his loins sprang House Gardener, whose kings would rule the Reach for many thousands of years.[6]

The Golden Reign

The greatest of the Gardeners was King Garth VII Gardener, known as the Goldenhand, for his deeds both in war and in peace.[2] Ascending to the Oakenseat at age twelve, Garth ruled for eighty-one years, of which less than ten were spent at war. In the few times Garth Goldenhand did go to war he utterly trounced his adversaries. As a boy he defeated an invasion of Dornishmen by King Ferris Fowler, then drove the ironborn from the Shield Islands and fortified them with men from the Reach. Garth VII divided an alliance between the King of the Rock and Storm King, defeating both in the Battle of Three Armies, and dictated the boundaries of their three kingdoms in the aftermath.[2]

Garth's greatest accomplishment was giving his people three-quarters of a century of golden peace, bringing an unprecedented prosperity. Garth's rule became known as the Golden Reign, and was when the Reach truly flowered.[2]

Arrival of the Andals

The Kings of the Reach observed the Andal invasion of the Vale, stormlands, and the riverlands from afar. Instead of allying with the invaders against other First Men, they took precautions against possible Andal invasions. King Gwayne IV (the Gods-fearing) sought aid from the children of the forest, while Mern II (the Mason) constructed a new curtain wall around Highgarden and encouraged his bannermen to do the same. Mern III (the Madling) supported a woods witch who claimed she could raise armies of the dead. The anticipated Andal attacks never occurred, however. When the disunited Andals eventually reached the realm of the Gardeners generations later, however, they were welcomed by the Three Sage Kings. [9]

The Three Sage Kings who followed one another on the Oakenseat — Garth IX, his son Merle I (the Meek), and his grandson Gwayne V — were a trio of cunning and wise kings who used a policy of accord and assimilation with the Andals rather then armed resistance. Although he continued to worship the old gods, Garth IX made a septon part of his councils and the first sept at Highgarden was built during his reign. Merle I converted to the Faith of the Seven and become its patron, helping to fund and build septs, septries, and motherhouses across the Reach. Gwayne V was the first Gardener King born into the new Faith, as well as the first to be made a knight.[9]

The Three Sage Kings took Andals into their service as knights and retainers. Ser Alester Tyrell, the founder of House Tyrell, was made Gwayne V's champion and sworn shield.[10] Merle I and Gwayne V married Andal maidens to bind their fathers to the Gardener realm.[9] The three kings also bequeathed lands, wives, and lordships for the more powerful of the Andals descending on the Reach in exchange for pledges of fealty; numerous houses of the Reach trace their ancestry back to these Andal adventurers.

The Gardeners also encouraged Andal craftsmen, specially blacksmiths and stonemasons, to settle throughout the Reach, supplying them and their bannermen with iron instead of bronze and strengthening their castles with Andal masonry. Most new lords remained loyal and helped the Gardeners against internal and external threats. MaesterYandel writes that seldom had a conquest been achieved with less bloodshed.[9]

Andal Kings

The centuries that followed the assimilation with the Andals were less peaceful, and the Gardener kings (and one queen) varied in wisdom and strength. The Kings of the Reach constantly warred against and allied with the Kings of the Rock, the Storm Kings, the many kings from Dorne, and the Kings of the Rivers and the Hills.[9]

The long reign of King Garth X, known as Garth Greybeard, witnessed the nadir of Gardener power. The elderly and senile Garth had sired only daughters, who were married to the rival Lords Manderly and Peake. Once the rival lords began warring, the Lannisters, Durrandons, and Dornish attack the kingdom. A Dornish king sacked Highgarden, killed Garth Greybeard, and destroyed the Oakenseat. The anarchy that followed lasted almost a decade until Ser Osmund Tyrell, the High Steward of Highgarden, made common cause with the other lords of the Reach and defeated both the Peakes and the Manderlys, reclaimed the ruins of Highgarden, and supported Mern VI Gardener, a second cousin of Garth, as king. Although a man of only modest gifts, Mern VI was able to rebuild Highgarden and restore the power of the Reach and House Gardener, relying on the counsel of his stewards: Osmund Tyrell, Osmund's son Ser Robert — who was allowed to marry his youngest daughter in gratitude — and Robert's son Lorent. Mern's son Garth XI (the Painter) retaliated against the Dornish by invading the Red Mountains.[9]

Mern commanded the center of the combined army and led the charge against Aegon's forces. The host of House Targaryen eventually broke, but by then Aegon and his sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys, had taken to the air on their dragons. The dragons killed four thousand men of the combined army, among them Mern and his sons, grandsons, brothers, cousins, and other kin.[15] One nephew of King Mern survived, but he died of his burns three days later, ending House Gardener.[1]

Legacy

Many of the noble houses from the Reach trace their descent back to Garth Greenhand, a fact that is often used to boast of a better claim than the Tyrells as the rightful rulers of the Reach, as the Tyrells are descendants of the Gardeners only through the female line. Houses with Garth Greenhand as an ancestor are the Florents, the Rowans, the Oakhearts, and many others.[17]

Golden currency from the time of the Gardeners is still in use, albeit rare.[18][19] The coins are named hands, each worth roughly half a gold dragon,[19] and feature the hand sigil of House Gardener on one side and the likeness of the current king on the other side. They are known to have been made with Garth XII's effigy.[18]